Pigments may offer several advantages over water-soluble dyes when it comes to end use applications, including, but not limited to, inks, coatings, paints, papers, toners, textiles, fibers, wood stains, color filters, cosmetics, and plastics. For example, pigments exhibit at least one of greater lightfastness, ozone fastness, waterfastness, optical density and edge acuity compared to water-soluble dyes. However, wet and dry rub durability of coatings made with printing inks still remains a problem even when using pigmented inks.
Crosslinking is a means of increasing the durability of coatings, but crosslinking formulations traditionally have very short shelf-lives due to progress of the crosslinking reaction. Accordingly, a need remains for self-crosslinking dispersions and inks where the crosslinking substantially occurs only after exposure to the atmosphere and optional application of heat. Furthermore, a need remains for self-crosslinking inks where the crosslinking substantially occurs only after printing.